


Like the Moon and Tides

by cleo4u2, cobaltmoony, xantissa



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU, Angst, Bottom!Bucky, Consentacles, Fluff, Gift, M/M, Tentacles, Xeno, alternative universe, creature!fic, mer!Bucky, metal tail, octo!Steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 05:22:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10633101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleo4u2/pseuds/cleo4u2, https://archiveofourown.org/users/cobaltmoony/pseuds/cobaltmoony, https://archiveofourown.org/users/xantissa/pseuds/xantissa
Summary: What we are, what we’ve been, Steve shook his head. A tentacle wrapped up, around Bucky’s back and over his shoulder. The suckers latched onto his skin, pulling at it even as the tentacle held him closer to Steve’s broad chest.The tides have never met the moon and yet they follow her pull. You are my moon, Bucky. Knowing you… It’s more thanevents





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Riakomai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riakomai/gifts).
  * Translation into Русский available: [Like the Moon and Tides](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11570466) by [Ortalle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ortalle/pseuds/Ortalle)



> Happy early Birthday to dear Riakomai! Who asked for Moony's version of metal_tail!Bucky, and since she also loves tentacles we decided to give her another bigger surprise!
> 
> Well, Cleo and Xan just bullied our way in after we saw the gorgeous art but who could blame us?
> 
> Beta'd by the one and only Glow Cloud, [NurseDarry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NurseDarry/profile). ALL HAIL.

Though it had been his plan from the moment he escaped, Bucky was still surprised to find himself home. The cliffs overlooking the canyon - to the left the Takojin, to the right Ningyo - were just like he remembered from his childhood. The vast, empty ocean he had crossed was at his back, but it didn’t scare him like it had then when he’d swim close to the rocky outcroppings, ready to clutch at a handhold should a rogue current try to sweep him away. No current would be able to carry him away, not anymore, not after what the land-walkers had done to him.

What they had done to him was what stopped him from darting off the cliffs, into the canyons, and home. The blue lights of his people glimmered in the deep, calling him, promising safety and warmth, promising friends and family.

Promising questions he wasn’t sure he wanted to answer.

There were friends to the right, he reminded himself, looking towards the shimmering purple globes. His father had never approved, hell, most of his tribe hadn’t, but Bucky had never let that keep him from the cliffs. The neutral ground where they could meet and play and pretend their tribes didn’t hate each other.

But no. There would be more questions in that direction, more explanations necessary than if he went home. Worse, there would be expectations, and as much as Bucky wanted to see a pair of blue eyes and purple tentacles, he didn’t want them to see him. The scars along his back itched at the thought, his tail twitched instinctively, and scraped the stone wall, cutting deep furrows as the rock gave easily under the unbreakable metal blade of his fin. He hated the crude appendage, the armor on it, but most of all the purpose of it. It could cut flesh and bone as though it was nothing more than seaweed. He could use the fins to to cut rock and metal, could use it to kill better than with his claws.

He _hated_ the thing with a passion and having to explain it? Having to tell how they’d taken from him his tail and replaced it with a weapon? The words gathered in his throat, threatening to choke him, strangle him right there, alone on the wall.

No, he shouldn’t have come back. He was a disgrace, a monster. Not only had he let an enemy touch his tail, he had let them take it. Their tails were what made his people what they were, and his wasn’t real. Surviving the ordeal was a shameful thing, the proof that he chose his life over his honor. 

_Well, hello there._

The voice in Bucky’s mind was warm, rich, and low. Inviting. Bucky could feel his eyebrows raising even before he saw the movement, and turned. The purple tentacles caught his gaze first, so dark they blended with the black rock of the cliffs. Two were holding the octo to the wall, the other six floating in the water about him, white suckers like strange, otherworldly shadows beneath each arm. They were thick, muscle and power evident in each deceptively delicate limb. The octo was a fully grown adult, the tentacles alone a clear indication of his age and good health. When Bucky raised his eyes to the flat stomach and the well developed muscles, he couldn’t help but admire the octo’s physique. The stranger’s arms were wide set, adorned with an intricate design on his left side from shoulder to wrist. He’d been told once what the marks meant, but it was knowledge from another lifetime.

A smirk tugged at his lips because it was starting to occur to him just what this place was, what he had forgotten about it. It was where the youngsters came to hook up, and the stranger clearly was used to finding partners here on this cliff. It was not why Bucky was here, but the octo had no way of knowing that.

The long tail of golden hair distracted Bucky for a second, making him feel a familiar punch of nostalgia, before he looked at the man’s face. Angular and clear, the octo was handsome as hell with high cheekbones, a strong jaw, and the clearest blue eyes Bucky had seen in a very long time.

He was, frankly, stunning.

 _I haven’t seen you before,_ the octo said, approaching slowly and with a confident smile, _and I’m sure I’d remember someone like you_.

Bucky had to choke down a laugh at the strange, surrealness of _this_ being his first conversation home.

 _Last time I was up here, I had a curfew,_ Bucky blurted. It was just so…nice to talk to someone in his mind again. The land-walkers had made sounds in the air, made him learn how, but he’d missed this. Missed home, even if he didn’t belong here anymore.

 _Must have been some time,_ the octo noted, a low purr to his voice as his eyes swept Bucky up and down. Bucky tensed, waiting for the question, the gaze to linger on his tail. They didn’t. _What’s brought you back?_

 _Specters_ , Bucky responded.

To Bucky’s surprise, the confident smile faded, concern flickering in the familiar blue eyes. The octo came closer, holding out a hand, not a tentacle like the octos did between each other. A mer custom that made Bucky’s throat ache, as he remembered teaching a tiny, blond octo to shake his hand.

_Do you want to talk about them?_

Despite himself, Bucky found his hand half-way stretched toward the octo without his permission.

 _You’re not up here to talk_ , Bucky accused, suspicious at the strange kindness.

 _No_ , the octo agreed, _but you look like you need a friend more than I need…well. Besides,_ the octo’s grin was sudden, brilliant, and beautiful, _you’re the only one up here. So, if you want to talk, I’d love to talk instead of heading home._

 _I don’t want to go home either_ , Bucky admitted.

 _Then that’s settled_ , the octo declared, settling himself against the cliff face. _I’m Steve. What’s your name?_

Bucky stared. Surely there would have been more than one Steve with blond hair and blue eyes among the octos? His Steve had been so small, anyway, nowhere near the size of this gold and purple Adonis. Skinny had been the nicest way to describe him, not…not this muscled hunk.

But if it was Steve…

 _Okay,_ Steve said slowly, _no name, then. That’s fine; I’ll call you…Silver, all right?_

 _You are awfully smooth_ , Bucky said, surprised and charmed despite himself. _Got a lot of practice talking mer up here?_

Steve had the grace to look sheepish.

 _Maybe a little. I used to come here all the time when I was a kid, back before your Prince disappeared._ A slice of rock knocked free of the wall as Bucky’s tail, agitated, swiped through it. Steve was talking about him. _I never stopped coming after that_ , the octo went on as if Bucky hadn’t reacted at all, _found new reasons to stay later and later._

The thought of tails beating the water about Steve, those glossy tentacles on the skin, and inside mer bodies had jealousy crawling at Bucky’s chest like a physical thing. The longer he spent with this Steve, the more he thought he could be his own, but he could never mate, not with this Steve, not with his own, not now. Not ever again. The land-walkers had taken that from him.

 _The way you look?_ Bucky said, half-angry, half-flirtatious, _Bet the reasons were plentiful._

_Never had quite the reason I’ve had tonight, Silver_ , Steve said and he was holding out his hand again.

Bucky could feel his lips quirking. Damn the man was smooth with his replies. They made Bucky want what he couldn’t have - those hands, those tentacles, on his skin, touching his body as if it was still whole.

 _I won’t hurt you,_ Steve promised, and Bucky realized he had been staring at the octo’s hand for who-knew how long. Yet the words made him laugh. Steve? Hurt him? No one could hurt him now, not with what he was.

 _You couldn’t hurt me_ , Bucky challenged, ignoring the bitterness in his own voice.

Steve’s tentacles moved him closer, hand still outstretched, but Bucky could see the taunt reflecting in his shallows-bright eyes.

 _Is that what you want?_ Steve asked, soft and almost eager. _To take challenge?_

The tentacles rose up around them both, longer than Bucky had imagined. His heart leapt into his throat, pounding at the thought of it. Of this Steve following mer courtship, of fighting for the right to mate with Bucky. Fighting _Bucky_ for that right, stilling his tail, opening him up and proving he was worthy - strong and agile - of claiming his body. It was tradition, one Steve must have known from his nights up here, and it sent a rush through his mutilated body, though even Bucky couldn’t have said if it was terror or excitement he felt.

No, it was excitement. He’d longed for Steve’s challenge from before he’d known what it really meant, but it didn’t matter now. It didn’t matter that this was his Steve, or that he was home. This was not his place any more, not his people.

With a single swish of his mechanical tail, Bucky turned to swim away, his powerful appendage giving him speed.

 _Bucky_!

That Steve called his name almost made him stop, but he shoved down the longing and beat his tail against the ocean current. Without warning, he was jerked to a stop. Twisting, he looked down to see a tentacle had lashed around the base of his tail fin, actually holding him in place. Bucky yanked, thrashing to free himself, but it did nothing. The tentacle around him only held on tighter, seemingly unaffected by his struggling. Then it began pulling him back, reeling him in like he was a fish on a land-walker’s line.

Bucky snarled, tucking and turning, facing Steve with his claws outstretched to rip flesh apart. Nobody was allowed to haul him around like this! If Steve thought he could make Bucky do anything, Bucky was going to strip the flesh from his bones and he didn’t need his tail to do it. He froze when he saw the expression on Steve’s face. It wasn’t the look of a man trying to conquer prey, or a mate. Steve wasn't angry or stubborn or fierce. He looked crushed. There was so much anguish and pain on his face, Bucky could hear his heart breaking.

As fast as it had risen, the fight left Bucky. Steve wasn’t forcing him, wasn’t trying to dominate him.

Steve was terrified.

Something fierce and hard, maybe even disappointed, filled Bucky’s chest. He would have hurt Steve if him had tried to force him into anything, but a part of Bucky had wanted Steve to try, to prove he was worthy of Bucky.

 _Steve_ , Bucky said, stunned by the raw anguish in his old friend’s face.

The tentacle kept pulling Bucky in, towards Steve’s chest, until the octo was able to curl his arm around Bucky’s back, the other under the swell of his tail, and hold him close. Not that Steve then let go. No, the tentacle wrapped itself in multiple loops around the base of Bucky’s tail fin, immobilising him thoroughly. Yet Steve was so gentle about it, as if worried he could actually hurt Bucky if he tried. Bucky moved the tail a little, just to feel the weight of the tentacle wrapped around him.

_Don’t go_ , Steve whispered in his mind. _Please don’t leave again_.

Bucky closed his eyes. He hadn’t had a choice.

 _I don’t belong here anymore_ , _Steve_ , Bucky said weakly, hating how much he wanted to stay just because Steve had asked him to. It felt so…weak.

 _Because of this?_ Steve’s hand swept down his tail, but Bucky couldn’t feel the touch as more than a shift of the armored plating. He still flinched. _Bucky, I don’t know who did this to you, but you don’t have to tell me. You don’t have to tell anyone. We’ve missed you -_ I’ve _missed you._

Bucky shook his head, denying…he didn’t even know what. The pain in Steve’s voice? The obvious longing? His own pain? Something, anything. He wasn’t who he had been; he would only disappoint them.

 _It’s been years_ , Bucky said, his fingers digging into Steve’s skin.

 _I know_ , Steve said, the two words somehow pleading, _God, Bucky, I know._

_You don’t know me anymore. You can’t miss me._

It was such an inconceivable thing for Steve to miss Bucky, to want him after all those years, all that time and space they spent apart. Steve apparently had grown up and hit it off with the mer population, and Bucky losing what made him a mer, had become this amalgamation of what he used to be, and what the land-walkers made of him, belonging to neither group. It was too much, Bucky couldn’t wrap his head around the idea, couldn’t believe it.

 _What we are, what we’ve been,_ Steve shook his head. A tentacle wrapped up, around Bucky’s back and over his shoulder. The suckers latched onto his skin, pulling at it even as the tentacle held him closer to Steve’s broad chest. _The tides have never met the moon and yet they follow her pull. You are my moon, Bucky. Knowing you… It’s more than_ events _. Tell me I’m wrong - tell me you haven’t missed me._

Bucky shook his head minutely, he couldn't…he couldn't tell Steve about the nights when only the memory of his friend had kept him alive, of the burning pain in his spine after the barbaric surgery, and that only the thought that there was still somebody out there who might wait for him had helped him survive that, allowed him to stay sane at all. There were no words for what Steve meant to him. Missing him didn’t begin to tell the truth of it. 

_Please, Bucky. I’ll do anything. Just…stay…_

Bucky swallowed. He hadn’t had a choice, before. He had a choice now. He could feel it in the tremor that ran through Steve’s fingers. If he asked, the octo, his old friend, would let him go. Even if it broke his heart, he would do it.

Slowly, making sure to keep his claws retracted, Bucky rested his hand on the sharp line of Steve’s jaw and tilted his head towards him, touching their foreheads together.

 _Make me stay_ , Bucky sent quietly, carefully curling his fingers and letting his claws out, dragging them over Steve’s chest. _Show me you are worthy_ , Bucky challenged.

Beneath his hand, Steve’s broad chest shuddered. _Bucky_ , his voice whispered just before he tilted his head and their lips met. It wasn’t what Bucky expected, not when a challenge was supposed to be strength and violence, was supposed to be about proving one’s right to dominate, the right to take. This, instead, was a soft press of Steve’s lips to his, the gentle pressure as they moved over his own, making Bucky forget he was supposed to fight. His own eyes were open, but Steve’s were closed, fear chased away from the lines about his brow and nose. Steve looked so defenseless then, so gentle, not the brazen octo warrior who had snuck up on him at the cliffs.

 _Steve_ , Bucky whispered, not meaning to, and felt all the limbs about him tighten at once. Though he was still gentle, Steve’s lips pressed harder to his own, insistent as they urged his mouth to part. Bucky felt himself melt as a teasing tongue brushed at the seam, then again and again, until Bucky opened his mouth to Steve and it swept inside. He moaned then, despite himself, and Steve responded in kind, tongue delving deeper, claiming without resistance what Bucky had meant to put up a fight for.

 _I won’t make this so easy on you,_ Bucky shot at Steve.

Blue eyes finally opened, lips stilling before teeth suddenly nipped at Bucky’s. They were bright with amusement, with a challenge accepted, and Bucky felt his chest tighten, his belly warm up with excitation.

 _I keep what I catch_ , Steve promised.

Bucky’s heart slammed into his ribs, and both shoved himself away from Steve’s chest, while trying to twist and get his tail between them. Now they would fight. Now he’d be caught, claimed, or he’d leave. He wouldn’t return again, and for a fleeting moment, he feared Steve wouldn’t be able to hold him. Then his old friend proved that he was so much more than just a gentle lover. His tentacles sailed around Bucky, lashing his tail in strong, unbreakable coils. Though Bucky’s tail fins were capable of cutting deeply, severing tentacles and cutting to the bone, Steve had wrapped a limb just above the base, heedless of any danger. The overlapping metal plates of Bucky’s tail had been designed as impenetrable armor, capable of withstanding any attack, but it now strained against the immovable grip. The servos recalibrated under the pressure, but Steve wasn’t letting go. Unconsciously, Bucky triggered the plates all along the metal, and from waist to tail they changed position, tightening up, making the spaces between them smaller, becoming almost a solid mass of metal in a conditioned response to pressure. The bladed tip of his tail twitched and Bucky froze, scared he’d unintentionally cut Steve.

 _That’s all the fight you have?_ Steve taunted, another tentacle whipping about Bucky’s wrist, pulling the claws from his chest.

Bucky hesitated, surprised that yes, it was all the fight he was willing to give this. They could, of course, descend into a real, no mercy, fight that would leave them both shattered, but Bucky couldn't find the anger inside him for it. He wanted to push Steve, to taunt him, to score his back with his claws, but it never even occurred to him to try and go for Steve’s vulnerable neck or his eyes. Bucky not only didn’t want to win, he also didn’t want to really hurt Steve.

Something softened in Steve’s eyes again, the tentacle and another pulling Bucky’s arms up and about his neck. Not the place for hands with claws as wicked as theirs in a fight. Bucky curled his arms around Steve, sheathing his claws as he let the smooth tips of his fingers run over the warm skin.

 _You are strong,_ Bucky said quietly.

 _I can hold you_ , Steve promised. _Even as you are. I am also not the same._

Bucky shifted, pressing his lips to Steve’s in a hungry kiss. In a moment, everything had changed and he knew he was the cause of the uncertainty in Steve’s eyes. He’d demanded Steve challenge him, then stopped fighting, giving in to the pull between them. If Steve had wanted an explanation, he couldn’t have given it, except the thought that Steve was wrong. Bucky wasn’t the moon, Steve was. Bucky was the tides.

Steve gave way beneath Bucky’s kiss, not understanding, but accepting it was what Bucky needed. He was touching Bucky everywhere with his hands, careful but firm caresses on his sides, on his back, along his spine without lingering over the horrific scarring. The tentacle along his back was gently attaching and detaching from his skin, teasing and sensitising, and making Bucky shiver, his claws sheathing and hiding almost rhythmically. He was only distantly aware that he was dragging the tips of his fingers, sometimes with claws extended, over Steve’s skin. It felt so good to be touched like this, so humbling to feel so much gentleness. Bucky hummed and pushed himself closer to Steve, sliding his palms up that powerful chest, still stunned that the shrimp of a boy had grown up into something as big as this octo warrior.

Tentacles snuck around Bucky’s front, teasing the armored plates, searching for the seam to his pouch. Bucky bit his lip, burying his face into the crook between Steve’s neck and shoulder and waited. There was nothing to find and Steve’s limbs, though they looked thick and powerful, had extremely sensitive with malleable tips, capable of fitting themselves against every little groove in the metal. Bucky shivered from the sensation even as he waited for Steve to discover, as he had, that the seam was gone, or had never been.

 _You’re so tight_ , Steve murmured, lips brushing Bucky’s ear, and he shuddered, closing his eyes tightly. Once Steve figured it out, Bucky knew he wouldn’t want to keep his catch, so he kept his mouth pressed into a hard line and held on to the octo’s shoulders with all his strength, waiting for the moment Steve would say he couldn’t find it. The moment Steve gave up and asked Bucky to open for him; asked Bucky to do the impossible. 

Bucky was a moment from begging Steve to stop when something sparked inside him. Bucky arched his back, stunned by the pleasure, by how intimate it felt, and just what it _meant_ that he could feel it. Feel the very tip of a tentacle, pressed inside his seam - a seam Bucky couldn’t find with his own hands - rubbing over Bucky’s cock.

 _Steve!_ Bucky shouted, sparkles of pleasure cascading down his back, more intense than his own hand had ever felt. The fin on the back of his tail extended sharply and then snapped flat again. His hands dug into Steve’s shoulders, but he could feel it now, how his slit kept slowly widening under the pleasure. The tentacle wiggled in a few more millimeters, until it could almost wrap it around Bucky’s cock, and started tugging it out of the snug pouch, into the cold ocean waters.

 _Oh, sweetness,_ Steve purred and a hot flush flowed through Bucky’s body as he remembered his friend telling him why the octos thought so little of their hands. Why would they, when their tentacles were so much stronger, more agile, able to rend, yet incredibly delicate, and able to _taste_ as well as feel. _You opened for me so sweetly._

Bucky looked into Steve’s eyes, the same shade he’d learned the sky was above the water, and shuddered as pleasure ran through him more powerfully than any pain he’d ever known. Pressing the tips of his claws against Steve’s back, he dragged them down. He hadn’t cut Steve’s skin, not yet, but he made it clear he could. That he _would_. In response, Steve tightened the tentacles wrapped around Bucky’s tail, making Bucky gasp and twitch in an instinctive bid to twist away from the hold. He didn’t get far, the coils keeping him pinned and only exciting him more, the seam to his pouch opening a fraction more.

_I can handle anything you throw at me, Buck._ Steve’s voice in his head was clear and dark, unbearably confident. _Anything._

 _I can hurt you_ , Bucky warned. _Cut you open; make you bleed_.

 _It’s not pain,_ Steve said, _when it’s you doing it to me._

 _Fuck_ , Bucky swore, throwing his body away from the cliff, away from Steve, and crying out when his effort was met as if by iron chains. All his struggles really did was rub his cock - now free of the pouch, pink, sensitive, and swollen - over the tightly corded mass of Steve’s tentacles. The strong limbs were covered in smooth thick skin that shifted over the octo’s endless muscles. The small gentle suckers stretched up to touch Bucky’s cock, placing little tender, sometimes prickling, kisses all along it. The result was friction and sensation, pleasure and a strange kind of stinging that felt too good to be true. Bucky arched, thrusting his cock closer to the mass of entwined limbs, his eyes closing as sensation sent his nerves on fire as Steve touched all over his length, from root to tip.

Try as he might, Bucky couldn’t do more than wriggle closer to the pleasure he was being given. He pressed his cheek against Steve’s chest, listening to his heartbeat as more thick ropy tentacles tangled with his tail. There were so many, and they were so strong, yet they immobilized Bucky as if he were a tiny, fragile creature instead of an enhanced killing machine. Bucky shivered as he felt suckers attach themselves to the armor plates of his tail, the sensation like nothing he’d known before. They stuck, then lifted, attaching and detaching slowly, over and over; searching, curiously investigating the space between each connecting plate.

Already overwhelmed, Bucky ducked his head, fit his lips over a small, pink nipple on the octo’s torso. The moan Steve sent his way had his hands curling, claws extending reflexively and piercing Steve’s skin as he sucked, shivers wracking his body. He fought the urge to bite down and wriggled, needing more friction, more of the inquisitive touch, more… _Steve_.

It felt like even more tentacles were looping, coiling around him, simulating a mating clutch so closely Bucky felt himself shuddering twice as hard as before. The suckers were inspecting every single inch of his mechanical addition, from his waist, to the very base of his fin; tasting, touching… Hell, they could have been taking him apart for all Bucky knew, or cared, so long as they didn’t stop.

Bucky’s whole body jerked as the suckers attached to specific plates and started pulling in opposite directions. At first, Bucky couldn't understand what Steve was doing. His tail was metal, not flesh. There was no give anymore, like he was sure there had been no pouch, and he again let go of Steve’s nipple to tell him to stop - only to burst with bubbles as he felt the plates _move_. Bucky dug his fingers into Steve’s shoulders as his conqueror, his moon, pulled flat, armored metal pieces apart so slowly, so gradually, there was no pain at all. An inexplicable frisson of tension rippled down his half-cybernetic body, but Steve didn’t stop. Didn’t hesitate for a moment. 

_Wha...t?_ Bucky forced himself to project.

 _I knew you could open_ , Steve murmured into his mind, lips against his ear, tracing the shell with a soft caress.

The force on his body didn’t change, the tentacles pulling, the plates giving, sifting, and separating with a mere token resistance. Then Bucky arched his back as he felt the first careful touch _inside him_. He dug his fingers into Steve’s chest harder, his tail thrashing at the sensation of something slick and smooth pushing exposing his sensitive entrance. An entrance, like his pouch, he’d thought gone with his tail. He didn’t know why it was still there, why the land-walkers had left him both, but he didn’t _care_. It was there and Steve was… Steve was…

 _I’ve got you_ , Steve’s voice whispered in his mind. _I can take it. I can take all of you._

 _Steve!_ Bucky’s voice exploded from his mind and his chest along with a frothing foam as he shouted and struggled, claws sinking deeper into Steve, and yet he couldn’t stop because _Steve_ was not stopping. The tentacles held steady, held his tail, and kept his body open, forced Bucky’s body to give. Bucky’s heartbeat went insane, doubling, then tripling, as he keened both into the water and into Steve’s mind. He hadn’t been aware he could still do this, that he still had the ability, let alone that there would be anyone strong enough, or know _how_ to do this to him.

And then he gasped again, because the tentacle tip had retreated and something harder and thicker was now pushing at the exposed opening. He knew what it was, though only an octo could have told the tentacle apart from the rest without long inspection. Steve had thought him an idiot when he’d accidently grabbed hold of it once when they were children, before he’d had thoughts of challenge, or being conquered, or loving a Takojin, the enemy of his people. Before the silver nets and the knives that had taken him apart, taken his pride, and left him more machine than mer, he’d learned about Takojin anatomy. Steve had laughed at him when he said he couldn’t tell the difference, that it was longer, thicker, a brighter purple than the rest, but he could tell the difference now as he felt the bulbous, warmer head of the specialised tentacle push against the most vulnerable part of him. Felt it plunge deep enough to reach the real, living parts of him, and spread him open, sliding on an abundance of slick and water. Bucky’s hands scrabbled at Steve, clawing at him until he was able to wrap his arms around him, clawed fingers digging into his shoulders, gratified and yet surprised to feel Steve’s arms pull him in closer. Those arms only tightened against his back and shoulder, as the head of Steve’s cock pushed in and in. The intrusion stretched Bucky, filling him up where he’d never expected to feel anyone, and he keened again, the tentacles wrapped around him tightening almost painfully as he fought them unconsciously and they _held_ , pushing his pleasure higher.

Steve’s tentacle retreated, leaving him feeling empty, before it pushed in again, the thick head stretching him once more. Moaning loudly, Bucky thrashed, clawing at Steve’s back, overwhelmed with the feeling of being penetrated. It was so much, so _good_ , Bucky was only distantly aware of another tentacle gliding across the small, sharp fin on the top of his ass. Even then, it only made Bucky more aware of the steady, deep thrusts that were quickly stealing all his strength, taking the fight right out of him, so all he could do was hang onto Steve and _feel_.

The tentacle wrapped around his back pulled away, the suckers separating from his skin with a stinging pop. The skin between his shoulderblades ached, a long line of stinging marks, but the slight pain only served to heighten Bucky’s pleasure. The tentacle, the one the octos used to mate, pushed in and out and ever deeper, its sheer girth now keeping Bucky’s armored scales open on its own. Though it seemed impossible, Steve wasn’t stopping, wasn’t anywhere near done, and he pushed more of it inside, whiting out Bucky’s mind with pleasure. An abundance of slick, thick precome smeared from the tip of Bucky’s cock over Steve, making the bumpy suckers he rubbed against slicker, the sensation more electric. This didn’t once stop the suckers from attaching and detaching from his cock, the small, biting kisses igniting a fire that threatened to engulf him despite the water they swam in.

 _Bucky_ , Steve’s voice was forced and shuddery, _oh god, I have to..._

And then Bucky felt it. The tentacle inside him curled, stretching him so wide his eyes rolled back in his head. It swelled even more, making Bucky shout, loud and sharp because he could feel Steve coming inside him, filling him with hot thick liquid, and pulsing steadily. Steve was clutching him, his many limbs curled so tightly around his tail the armored plates were creaking and groaning in protest, pulling Bucky’s body towards him, the base of his tentacles tensing and shifting against his own swollen cock.

It was too _much_.

Too much pleasure, too much power. Steve was holding onto him with such fierceness it shattered the tension in Bucky. Everything clenched down - on the tentacle inside him, on the ones teasing at his hole, keeping it spread open and accessible - as his own cock exploded, shooting come all over Steve’s tentacles. Marking him. Even more tentacles wrapped about Bucky, and, _oh god,_ it was like there was no end to them, holding him through his orgasm, through every shudder that wracked his body.

If Bucky had thought that would be the end, he soon found himself severely mistaken. He could hear the urgency in Steve’s voice as he called Bucky’s name, coils wrapping even more tightly over Bucky’s body. He went limp in the grasp, too dizzy with pleasure to even think about resisting. Steve caught his face in his hands and pulled his head up enough that he could kiss Bucky again. This wasn’t a gentle kiss that Bucky was half-expecting. It was fierce and hungry. Steve pushed his tongue as deep inside Bucky’s mouth as it could go, mimicking the movement inside Bucky from just moments before. Whining softly into Steve’s mind, Bucky opened beneath the octo as he felt the spent, softening tentacle start pulling back.

Only Steve was pushing a second one in before the first even pulled out, the limb sliding easy inside Bucky on all the come that had been pumped inside him. He caught onto Steve’s arms, mind whiting out at the stretch and burn of the second intrusion forcing its way into his stretched-open hole and shuddered violently. It was so good, almost too good, and Steve was losing all semblance of control. Confused, swimming in sensation, in pleasure, all Bucky could do was suck helplessly at Steve’s tongue as he felt Steve stuff another tentacle inside him.

 _Another…?_ Bucky thought weakly, but Steve didn’t answer, just pushed the swollen limb into him. It was as hard and thick as the last, giving his body no mercy as it pulled out and plunged back in, fast and deep. Another brushed at his entrance, teasing his open vulnerable hole. Though Steve already had two tentacles holding open the metal plates of his tail, he had no trouble adding more of his supple appendages, manipulating Bucky’s body as if it was born just for this, for Steve to take his pleasure.

Without any warning, the second one exploded inside him as Steve whined into their kiss and bit at Bucky’s lips. His claws scratched at Bucky’s sides, cutting he thought, but didn’t really care. It was hard to care about anything as more hot come filled him up to what felt like overflowing, leaking around the tentacle pulsing inside him, likely staining the water around them with the scent of their mating.

When he felt _another_ swollen tentacle replace the one that had spent itself inside him, sliding past his over-sensitive puffy entrance, Bucky felt his cock twitch. To his shock, the pleasure coiling in his belly broke again and he shuddered, jerked in Steve’s embrace as a second, weaker orgasm wracked his body. Though it wasn’t as powerful as the last, Bucky found himself shouting right into the kiss, his defenses shattered all around him, leaving him vulnerable to the sensations Steve was wringing from his helpless body.

The orgasm seemed to spur Steve to greater heights, stuffing a second tentacle into Bucky alongside the new intruder. This one was smaller, but just as hot and hard as the others. The versatile tentacles twisted about each other, pushing impossibly deep inside him, and Bucky’s body just _opened_ for them, the come Steve had deposited making it ridiculously easy. Bucky screamed again, aloud, in his head, he didn’t know. He was lost to the feelings coursing through him, unsure if it hurt, or felt better than anything in his whole life. And Steve just kept stuffing both limbs as deep as he could, stretching Bucky, owning him, taking him apart - or maybe putting him together again. There were no thoughts in Bucky’s mind anymore, no thought at all, as Bucky could only cling to Steve and endure.

It could have been moments, or hours, but at last the two twined tentacles were filling Bucky as well, scorching him with the heat of their come. There was a feeling of endless amounts of it inside him, filling him to _bursting,_ and oh, _god_ they weren't _stopping_. Nor was Steve stopping the kiss, fucking Bucky’s mouth with his tongue just as he was fucking his body.

 _I have to_ , Steve gasped into his mind, high and shaky, caught in the throes of pleasure.

And it occurred to Bucky that Steve _still_ wasn’t done.

Eyes rolling back at the sensation of those entwined tentacles still inside him, Bucky writhed helplessly, uncertain he could take more. He was already so full, so sensitive, his body caught between pleasure and pain, and Steve wasn’t _done_. Yet Steve held him so tight, his many arms wrapped about Bucky’s body, so careful and gentle, but still impossible to fight against, and Bucky surrendered to it, in that moment, giving everything and anything that Steve wanted from him. Steve had caught him. He restrained him and held him like the most precious thing in the world.

 _You can_ , Bucky whispered, _you caught me_.

Steve made a noise at this, some strangled little thing, and surged in to kiss Bucky again, pushing his tongue inside Bucky’s mouth as if he was starving for a taste of Bucky’s lips. It shook the mer, this want, how Steve seemed so consumed by it. Uncontrollable when he’d been completely in control before. Curling his fingers around Steve, Bucky pulled him in, willing to meet that desire halfway, give Steve whatever he needed. Heat was gathering again in his belly, even if his cock could only give a half-hearted twitch - no longer capable of getting hard - as Steve pulled his tentacles gently out. Bucky moaned and twitched as they pressed against that spot inside him as he went, making him see stars, and leaving his stretched-open hole tingling and almost aching and empty.

Helpless against this, the tentacles left behind, Bucky dug his fingers into Steve’s back, knowing he was cutting skin with his claws and unable to stop. He needed something in him again, needed to be filled back up, and at last he felt the warm, blunt tip at his opening. Tail fin twitching sharply, he jerked in Steve’s clutches, but the octo still had a good hold on him, tentacles tensing against his tail, stilling it, making the heat within him grow.

Steve wormed his hand between their bodies, closing it around Bucky’s soft cock. It felt good, but was _too much,_ and he whined against Steve mouth, gasping as the tentacle, just teasing before, pushed in, thick and slick and hot. It stretched his oversensitive, abused passage, drawing loud helpless and desperate sounds from him as Steve began slowly fucking him with that limb, pushing it in so deep Bucky shuddered every time Steve bottomed out.

 _Oh god, Steve, I can’t!_ he begged, clinging to Steve with all his might. _I can’t_ , he chanted, his mind shattering into pieces, but unwilling to break the tangle of their bodies.

 _Just one more_ , Steve murmured. _Just one more._

Bucky whined, hands gripping Steve tighter, eyes rolling back in his head as his heart pounded, the pleasure inching steadily higher with every thrust of that warm hard tentacle inside him, and every stroke of Steve’s hand over his soft, exposed prick. It went on and on, his body helpless in Steve’s tentacles, in his hands, his lips putty beneath Steve’s. More than before, more than _ever_ , this was surrender. This was knowing he was Steve’s.

Between one heartbeat and the next, Bucky’s body spasmed, clenching down on the tentacle inside him. Steve groaned like a man dying. His soft cock twitched fruitlessly in Steve’s palm, no come left inside him, but trying to empty anyway. Bucky was left floating, only half aware of what was going on around him, inside him, his mind unable to keep up with his body as dry spasms of orgasm ripped through him. The tentacle kept fucking him, and Steve palmed his cock.

When he came to his senses, Bucky realised Steve had come too, his tentacle softening and slipping out on the abundance of slick inside him.

 _Bucky,_ Steve said hoarsely, holding him close to his chest. _Bucky,_ he repeated, like some kind of mantra. The long limbs and powerful muscles shuddered against Bucky, as if Steve was the one who had been taken apart, put back together, and made new. Steve kept saying it, voice soft and tender in Bucky’s mind, as he held Bucky tightly, nose pressed just beneath Bucky’s ear, as Bucky slowly regained the ability to think and move, not that the latter was anything he _wanted_ to do. He was happy, just being here, in Steve’s arms.

 _Why… I thought there was only one?_ Bucky asked, feeling an exhausted giggle bubbling up in his throat that he ruthlessly suppressed. He turned his head a little, pressing his cheek to Steve’s, and not just because he was nervous. Not just that.

The tentacles still holding him open slowly put the plates of his tail back into place, then ran over the seam as if verifying it had closed properly. A shiver wracked Bucky’s body at the sensation, from the base of his spine to the tip of his tail. The tentacles did the same in front, tucking Bucky’s cock away, and he couldn’t help the soft sigh that left him. Steve was just… He was so…

 _I’d only gone through puberty once last time we talked about it,_ Steve said as if it made sense to go through puberty more than once. Bucky decided he wasn’t going to ask.

 _Now what?_ Bucky made himself ask instead.

 _Now I take you home,_ Steve said, and Bucky’s entire body went from hot to cold.

 _No_ , Bucky said with as much force as he could put into the word.

 _Bucky_ , Steve started, and Bucky dug his claws into Steve’s back, making him hiss.

 _No_.

 _Bucky_ , Steve all but growled, _I cannot take you home with me until I’ve taken you to see your father. There would be war._

Narrowing his eyes, Bucky tried to thrash his tail and couldn’t.. Steve was still holding him.

 _I’m no longer his son,_ Bucky said fiercely. _I am no longer part of my people._

 _Fine_ , Steve said, but he could see the disagreement in his shallow-bright eyes, _then if anyone tries to make you stay, I swear to you I’ll help you leave again, but we have to go see your father first. People will die, Buck. We can’t let that happen._

_You don't understand Steve_ , Bucky said almost gently. It wasn't that he was at peace with what happened to him, but he’d accepted that he couldn’t change it. _They took my tail. They cut it off and exchanged it for a metal monstrosity. To my people, the tail is_ sacred _Steve. What was done to me? I should have died. I would have been expected to die. If I show up now, my father would be put in a terrible position. Not only would he have to deal with the shame of his son allowing this to happen, he would probably be forced to banish me._

Steve blinked at him slowly, then scowled.

 _You really think I don’t know that? Who do you think they blamed for your vanishing? The things they’ve suggested I’ve done to you? Who do you think they’ll blame for this?_ Steve’s face hardened. _We have to take you home. If he banishes you…_

_Neutral ground,_ Bucky interrupted, his heart pounding oddly. _Somewhere he can come alone, hidden. So he doesn't have to suffer shame in front of his people._

Bucky was feeling a little resentful though. They just had this mind-blowing encounter, this moment when he’d felt a connection to another living being, and Steve hadn’t even spent a moment basking in it. He didn’t want to think about his people now, his father, or the inevitable blame he would have to carry, the horror in his father’s eyes when he realised the monstrosity his son has become. How far he had fallen.

Steve glanced toward the blue lights, then abruptly wrapped every single limb, arms and tentacles, about Bucky. They floated on the current, next to the cliff.

 _I don’t wanna let go of you to go get him_ , Steve said almost sheepishly.

 _You already broke the mood,_ Bucky grumbled, but didn't try to get away from the multiple limbs holding him.

 _Don’t be like that_ , Steve murmured, nuzzling against Bucky’s jaw again. _You asked, I answered._

 _I hoped you would want to talk about us, not the thing I don’t want to do the most_. _If I wanted to go there, I would have._

Steve blinked at him rapidly, then snorted a burst of bubbles just under his chin.

 _I thought we were pretty obvious,_ he said gently.

 _I don’t know. I’m not the one frollicking with mer at every opportunity, so what do I know?_ He answered with a fair bit of jealousy.

For a moment, Steve glared at him, then blinked again and shook his head, all his arms and tentacles tightening again.

_You think anyone compares to you? You think I didn’t wish it was you every time? I’m yours, Bucky. Only yours, I swear._

Bucky shifted in Steve’s hold, surprised when the coiled arms loosened immediately for him, and dragged his fingers down Steve’s back, but made sure the claws were sheathed.

 _I don’t… I don’t let people get close to me. Not any more,_ Bucky said quietly. _This is so sudden, so strange and new for me. Dragging my father into this is not helping._

 _Maybe… Maybe I can talk to him alone,_ Steve ceded, frown lines between his eyebrows. _Would that help? If you don’t have to see him?_

 _You would do that for me?_ Bucky asked, feeling vulnerable. He let his tail swish through the water, and Steve let go of him, despite his own admittance he didn’t want to.

 _I would do anything for you,_ Steve said fervently. _I’ll…_ Steve’s eyes got wide and wild. _I’ll let you go, if that’s what you want me to do, but god, I don’t want to. I want to take you home, to -_ my _home. I want you to_ stay _. I want… I want you to be mine._

 _Steve_ , Bucky called, coming close again and reaching for Steve’s face. _You caught me. You caught me and held me. You think I would let just anyone do that?_

 _Doesn’t mean you gotta let me do it again._ Steve winced. _Or stay. Please? Stay?_

 _Oh, Steve_ , Bucky murmured, _you are the only one I would let touch me like that._

_So you’ll stay?_ Steve asked, and he sounded so desperate Bucky couldn’t help but melt. Or tease him.

_I thought you said we were obvious?_

_Bucky,_ Steve practically whined.

 _I’ve loved you since we were kids_ , Bucky admitted with a gentle smile, _If you want me to stay, I will stay._

The emotions passed over Steve’s face so fast, Bucky couldn’t catch them all, but he laughed anyway because his mouth was opening and closing like a fish and his eyes were so wide they looked in danger of falling out of his head.

Finally, Steve burst with, _I love you. God, I love you,_ and he kissed Bucky again, wrapping all his hands and limbs about him all over. Bucky let himself think that everything was going to be all right.

The end.

**Author's Note:**

> Come and visit us on Tumblr
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